Week 5: Tapping Out The Social Network Game – #AlphaFemaleFriday

The importance of this topic weighs heavily on me as the benefits and consequences of social media and social networking online are becoming a trickier thing to balance. I love the positive attributes of social media: it allows us to be a part of the twenty-first century, allows us to market ourselves, and aids in building strong relationships all around. At the same time, as honest as we want to be online and portray ourselves authentically—we are strong, independent individuals who also falter from time to time—we realize that these overtly authentic portrayals may end up figuratively biting us back later on. I say we continue to use social media in moderation, intelligently, and to continue put ourselves out there. Emphasis on using social media properly and by properly, I mean not putting anything out there on the internet that your grandma wouldn’t want to see.

I think Generation X has accepted social media for professional purposes as an inevitability, which is great. I’m more concerned by Millennials and Generation Y who may take the importance of social media too far, and may treat their cell phones as more of an addiction than an aid. I try to do two things in both my professional career and my personal life. The first of these things is that I set aside a specific time a day (once a day) or a specific times during the week (a few times per week) to tackle social media. The second of these things is that I try to keep personalization alive: send notes and cards instead of e-mails. In 1999, we were more excited to hear the words “YOU’VE GOT MAIL!” blare from our speakers as we waited nearly ten minutes for the dial-up to connect to the internet. Now, we’re inundated with e-mail spam from hot singles in our area. We are more likely to pay attention to a well-thought letter with a stamp than a swiftly typed e-mail during our lunch breaks.

Wishing you Happy Holidays and much success—on the web and outside of it. 🙂

Cheers,

Kelly

@AlphaFemSociety tweets by @KellyRGonzales

About:

Each week, I take a tip from Lois P. Frankel’s book, Nice Girls Still Don’t Get the Corner Office, and explore how each of these tips affect myself and other women in similar positions on the road to becoming the women we want to be. There are far and few between who are a few steps behind me, and many more who are far advanced. I found that Lois P. Frankel’s advice applied to novice, intermediates, and experts alike. It helped me see that I was already doing right, served as a reminder to keep on doing what I was doing and how to keep that momentum going. The book also showed me areas where I could improve, and gave realistic tips to jump on board. There are a total of 133 tips, and explore one tip per week in a program I call: 133 Weeks to Success.

Join the movement using the hashtag #133WeeksToSuccess with posts which are posted every #AlphaFemaleFriday.